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Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller
The Center for Cartoon Studies presents a wholly original take on the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller in the fifth book of the award-winning series of graphic novel biographies.
Hardcover, 96 pages
Published
March 27th 2012
by Disney-Hyperion
(first published February 7th 2012)
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Imagine learning to dance. But you can’t hear the music.
Imagine riding horseback. But you can’t see to keep your balance and not fall off.
In her lifetime, blind and deaf Helen Keller learned to do both. She
Our story opens with a little girl drawn without features, completely in the dark. She is angry, she is scared, she is combative. This is Helen Keller and this is her world.
Enter Annie Sullivan, the woman who is hired by Helen’s parents to teach Helen to communicate. Annie grew up in an orpha...more
Imagine riding horseback. But you can’t see to keep your balance and not fall off.
In her lifetime, blind and deaf Helen Keller learned to do both. She
Our story opens with a little girl drawn without features, completely in the dark. She is angry, she is scared, she is combative. This is Helen Keller and this is her world.
Enter Annie Sullivan, the woman who is hired by Helen’s parents to teach Helen to communicate. Annie grew up in an orpha...more
Many people are familiar with the story of Helen Keller, a child who contracted an illness as a baby that left her blind and deaf. Through the dedication of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Helen learned how to communicate through sign language, reading, writing and eventually could speak.
The graphic novel approach to the story of Helen's life is portrayed very artfully. We start with a dark world, that features Helen and anything that she comes in contact with. Eventually the world opens up as she l...more
The graphic novel approach to the story of Helen's life is portrayed very artfully. We start with a dark world, that features Helen and anything that she comes in contact with. Eventually the world opens up as she l...more
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I found this graphic novel telling of the relationship between young Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan to be really engrossing. Anne Sullivan's personal history and obstacles lent a new and interesting perspective to the story, and there was no tidy wrapping up of the story or sugarcoating of the difficulties that Helen's family, Annie, and the Perkin's school folks ran into when trying to help Helen and communicate with one another. It does not try to tell the WHOLE story, and in fact ends at a ra...more
Annie Sullivan comes from the Perkins Institution for the Blind to work with Helen Keller, and blind and deaf girl with no way of communicating. Helen is wild and savage, trapped in a silent dark world. Annie, however, is no shrinking violet, and is determine to get though to Helen, despite the interference of Helen's parents.
This was excellent. Not only was the story beautifully told, but the visual representation of Helen's world was incredibly striking.
I have never read Helen Keller's The Sto...more
This was excellent. Not only was the story beautifully told, but the visual representation of Helen's world was incredibly striking.
I have never read Helen Keller's The Sto...more
This graphic novel tells the story of Annie Sullivan coming to help Helen Keller learn to communicate, but also picks up more of Annie's story of her own difficulties as a child. The graphics are particularly effective in portraying Helen's inability to sense the world around her-- a black background has a shadowy gray child on it until Helen is able to process words. A few things new to me are covered-- Helen's story, The Frost King, a story that Helen wrote as a gift for her teacher's mentor a...more
Focuses on Helen's famous teacher, and makes good use of her actual letters. Annie was a wonderful writer, very sharp-tongued and full of prickly observations about the world, and you can tell that the author/artist liked her.
The story of Annie educating Helen has been told a lot but people generally don't focus much on what it must have been like for a sharp little Irish girl who spent her early life in horrifying conditions in an almshouse to go live with a very privileged family in the post-...more
The story of Annie educating Helen has been told a lot but people generally don't focus much on what it must have been like for a sharp little Irish girl who spent her early life in horrifying conditions in an almshouse to go live with a very privileged family in the post-...more
I thought this graphic novel was pretty great. As a biography, it appears to be well researched and primarily uses text quoted from Sullivan's letters. I really like the section of "panel discussions" in the back that discuss the various people featured and their presence in the book. It's perhaps a little slow and thoughtful for younger children who may desire a faster-moving story but Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller is really a beautiful story with a fresh, original take on Helen...more
The graphic novele was sort of hard to read for me, only because I hate cursive writing. I'm never fast when I'm trying to read it. There was also this other type of hand writing which was sloppy and hard to read also. This book is about Annie Sullivan and how she taught Helen Keller how to speak, feel, understand, manners, and much more. I thought it was very interesting that Annie was a little blind too, I guess that's why she had such a good connection with Helen. I thought it was cool that A...more
This graphic novel tells the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller. It begins shortly after Annie Sullivan begins working as Helen's tutor. The author provides both Helen's and Annie's points of views, with Helen's perspective starting out in darkness. This changes as Annie teaches her. The book also jumps back and forth from the present to Annie's past beginning when she lived in an almhouse house with her little brother in Massachusetts and later when she is sent to the Perkins Institution...more
Why I picked it up: on the list for the YALSA challenge and many doing the challenge have raved about it.
Annie Sullivan, a graduate of Perkins school for the blind with some sight, travels to the south to be the teacher to a young girl named Helen who, after an infection as a young child, is both blind and deaf.
Honestly, I didn't really like it. I felt like it didn't add much to what I already knew about Annie Sullivan & Helen Keller. The back and forth timelines between Annie’s past and her...more
Annie Sullivan, a graduate of Perkins school for the blind with some sight, travels to the south to be the teacher to a young girl named Helen who, after an infection as a young child, is both blind and deaf.
Honestly, I didn't really like it. I felt like it didn't add much to what I already knew about Annie Sullivan & Helen Keller. The back and forth timelines between Annie’s past and her...more
Recommended for grades 4-8
This is an amazing graphic novel! In this story about Helen Keller's young life we are focusing more on her teacher, Annie Sullivan, and her backstory. The artwork in this book is well thought out. When we begin the book all passages that are from Helen's perspective are drawn with a black background with a featureless childlike figure of a solid color as the main image of each box. When Helen meets Ann their perspectives are woven together, but it is clear to the reade...more
This is an amazing graphic novel! In this story about Helen Keller's young life we are focusing more on her teacher, Annie Sullivan, and her backstory. The artwork in this book is well thought out. When we begin the book all passages that are from Helen's perspective are drawn with a black background with a featureless childlike figure of a solid color as the main image of each box. When Helen meets Ann their perspectives are woven together, but it is clear to the reade...more
It's story that everyone knows: Annie Sullivan taught blind and deaf Helen Keller how to understand sign language and then how to speak. It's repeated so often that it's easy to forget what an amazing thing Sullivan and Keller did together, especially given that Sullivan herself was in her early 20s when they started working together.
This fantastic graphic novel brings all the wonder back into the story; the style of the drawings didn't appeal to me at first, but the way Lambert uses visual sto...more
This fantastic graphic novel brings all the wonder back into the story; the style of the drawings didn't appeal to me at first, but the way Lambert uses visual sto...more
As a young girl, I loved to read about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, so maybe there's a bit of nostalgia in this graphic novel for me. Still, I learned new things about Annie and Helen, and the story is plotted in a new and original way.
The book nicely highlights the key points in both Annie's and Helen's lives, as well as gives some historical context to this era. It's a great introduction to these two people and can operate as a launching pad for further investigation and discussion.
The cov...more
The book nicely highlights the key points in both Annie's and Helen's lives, as well as gives some historical context to this era. It's a great introduction to these two people and can operate as a launching pad for further investigation and discussion.
The cov...more
The images in this graphic novel are vivid and effectively illustrate what life may have felt like to Helen Keller. The contrast beween Helen's dark, empty world, and the bright and beautiful outside of her is extremely powerful. I especially enjoyed the progression of Helen's language skills, and as words appear in Helen's world and she acquires knowledge of words and she understands more the illustrations become more complex as well. I enjoyed following Annie as a character, and that we got to...more
This graphic novel focuses on the early relationship between Helen Keller, and her teacher Annie Sullivan. The images effectively convey the frustrations, both physical and mental, that faced this pair when they began working together. Through flashbacks the author provides glimpses into the early life of Annie Sullivan. She was orphaned and sent to live in the Tewksbury Almhouse where she endured a lonely, neglected life until being accepted into The Perkins Institute for The Blind. Although th...more
This book was so fascinating! The artwork was really well done. At first, when images are shown from Helen's point of view, they are drawn in blurry shadows. After she has her "water" breakthrough and learns the connection between objects/concepts and the words she's learned to spell, suddenly the blurs become accompanied by language. I thought this was such a clever way to communicate to readers Helen's different way of seeing the world.
My only problem with this book was the ending. It ends on...more
My only problem with this book was the ending. It ends on...more
This was a powerful tale. I knew a lot about Helen Keller (I even played her in a scene in high school) but I didn't know as much about Annie. I didn't know about her life in an almshouse as a small child - and the conditions she faced. I didn't know about Helen's fiction writing experience, or how she was subjected to the charge of plagiarism and never wrote fiction again.
The way the images depicted her blindness and the way she was cut off from communication was amazing. I cried several times...more
The way the images depicted her blindness and the way she was cut off from communication was amazing. I cried several times...more
Perfecto! This comic shows off what the comics medium can really do when you set it free. I have always loved the story of Helen and Annie, this rendition gives you much more insight into Annie's heartbreaking upbringing as well as careful renditions of a greatly scrutinized historic friendship and lesson plan. You haven't lived until you see you how amazing comics can relate how a deaf/blind person would have no language, and slowly, then suddenly, discovers one.
This version of the Helen Keller story focuses on Annie Sullivan's background and experiences. I was really struck by her brutal honesty and frustration with those around her. The illustrations were fascinating, those depicting life as we see it juxtaposed with the dark blurs representing Helen's view of the world. This book really shows how Annie and Helen struggled with outside forces, making the story much more fascinating than I had expected.
OMG, I am all a twitter - finally a graphic novel that I was able to enjoy. I think it was probably because I am so familiar with the Helen Keller story. In general I don't care for the graphic novel genre - I am just so much more verbal than visual, but I liked the style of the drawings in this book and the succinctness with which the story is told. The panel discussions in the back were very interesting.
In this graphic novel, you learn about how Annie Sullivan comes to work with Helen Keller. The story shows both Annie's days with Helen and her life growing up.
I like how the story tiles flash back and forth between story and what the world might look like from Helen's point of view. I also think it's cool that when Helen is reading objects, the author uses a font that is similar to how Helen wrote. I learned some interesting facts about Helen and Annie and it would have been nice if the story w...more
I like how the story tiles flash back and forth between story and what the world might look like from Helen's point of view. I also think it's cool that when Helen is reading objects, the author uses a font that is similar to how Helen wrote. I learned some interesting facts about Helen and Annie and it would have been nice if the story w...more
The story is very well told, and gets the facts pretty spot on. The only provlem I have is the art work. It tells the story well, but I just cannot stand the look of it. I don't like the way the characters look. I find it wholly ugly and hard to look at for too long a period of time. It's an art style that I just do not like. Shame, because the rest of the book is good.
Four words: I loved this book.
The beautiful artwork and clear storytelling made me tear up on multiple occasions. Poignant, gorgeous, wonderful; it deserves all the good, fuzzy words I can throw at it. This biography illustrated the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller perfectly; the pictures complementing the words.
Perfect. If I could, I'd have given it ten stars.
The beautiful artwork and clear storytelling made me tear up on multiple occasions. Poignant, gorgeous, wonderful; it deserves all the good, fuzzy words I can throw at it. This biography illustrated the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller perfectly; the pictures complementing the words.
Perfect. If I could, I'd have given it ten stars.
This graphic novel effectively approaches the issue of integrating the deaf-blind state into the narrative. Especially impressive is the scenes dealing with Helen's comprehension from inside her world. Learned some new things about Annie Sullivan and her estrangement with her alma mater and old principal. Very good read, and drawn in a style that seems fitting for the era.
Annie Sullivan comes from the Perkins Institution for the Blind to work with Helen Keller, and blind and deaf girl with no way of communicating. Helen is wild and savage, trapped in a silent dark world. Annie, however, is no shrinking violet, and is determine to get though to Helen, despite the interference of Helen's parents.
I really enjoyed this graphic adaptation of the life of Annie Sullivan and her work with Helen Keller. This goes beyond the basic, "Miracle Worker" storyline and gives a rich historic lesson on how Helen's emergence into the "world" was filled with challenges on every front. Very interesting and thought provoking read.
Good use of the graphic medium to communicate Helen's transition from isolation to her connection with Anne Sullivan. I also like how this narrative seems to focus more on Anne Sullivan's life and how it shaped how she interacts and teaches Helen Keller. Use of text styles from the original sources is also a nice touch.
This graphic novel was so fascinating. I was so emotional drawn into Annie and Helen's lives. And the way that the artist drew Helen's perspective was so visually striking, I found myself thinking about life without sight and sound and being frightened by it.
I was hooked on the first page. I would probably have given it a five simply based on that. The way the author illustrates visually how Helen Keller experienced the world was ingenius. Both of these women were amazing, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about them.
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